Sue Polinsky’s No Tomato Chili Recipe

When it comes to chili, I’m not picky, really. There have been very few chili recipes I’ve met that I haven’t enjoyed. That said, I know how some of you feel about chili, there are those who feel it isn’t chili if it contains: [insert ingredient here]. I’m just happy when you share your chili recipes with me. The following no tomato chili recipe is from my dear friend Sue Polinsky. The recipe originated from The Impoverished Student’s Cookbook with as Sue puts it, “many significant embellishments by. . . me”

Enjoy! (I’ve made this several times over the past few years and I recently asked her to send me the recipe. She changed her website and it no longer exists on the web). As with many chili recipes, this is a method more than an exact recipe. You will adjust the seasonings based on your preferences and tastes.

Add pinto beans that you have let sit overnight in plain water and then cooked in the morning.
They need to boil at least 45 minutes and taste one to be sure it’s done. If using canned beans, drain the beans, but KEEP liquid. Add beans using a slotted spoon, reserve liquid. Mix once, mixing too much mushes up the beans.

Add bean liquid so there is some liquid in the pot and taste. Adjust.
Let simmer a few hours.
Freeze extra.

Add pinto beans that you have let sit overnight in plain water and then cooked in the morning.

They need to boil at least 45 minutes and taste one to be sure it’s done. If using canned beans, drain the beans, but KEEP liquid. Add beans using a slotted spoon, reserve liquid. Mix once, mixing too much mushes up the beans.

Comments

I have a copy of the Impoverished Students’ Cookbook and love it. If you can get hold of a copy, do so. It’s well written (should be, since the guy who wrote it was getting his Ph.D. in philosophy at the time) and great reading, if you want to know what college life was like fifty years ago. (It doesn’t sound all that different.) I have tried a couple of the recipes with success. He tends to give you the concept of cooking a casserole or other entree and then turns the reader loose to try it for themselves. I know this recipe but haven’t tried it yet, but I can assure you that now I will! Thanks for the encouragement!

Am happy that you like our chili! I’ve gotten 2 marriage proposals from it (I think I’ll keep the guy I’ve had for 39 years) and once, he warmed it up for an office party – using a crockpot in his office – and the entire floor came in to complain that he was making them unreasonably hungry at 10 a.m. The purpose of this chili was indeed for “poor students” and the original recipe is more than 50 years old. Over the years, we’ve changed a lot of it, including oregano & parsley. We go overboard on garlic (it’s a family thing) and I just don’t cook with much salt. The trick is black pepper (not red pepper, use sparingly). Good black pepper – a lot of it – is what gives this the taste we like.

I’m not kidding about “stick your nose in the pot” until you can smell the vinegar. It’s in the original and it’s dead-on accurate.

This freezes exceptionally well and we usually serve it over rice, on hot dogs and anywhere else you can use chili.